Serpents and Celestial Bronze
by Levity Lirum
Summary: He was only twelve, going on thirteen. And shouldn't Madame Pomfrey been able to detect this and stop it while he'd been in the hospital wing? Because seriously? This? This thing right here? It had to have been something to do with the Basilisk having bitten him. A whole new spin on the Snake!Harry Genre with some Ancestor! thrown in.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:****I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or anything derived there-of.**

I was originally gonna just put this up in **Random Dreams**, but decided to run with this as I haven't seen this before. I've seen pretty much everything else to do with Snake!Harry, but I can't say I've ever seen something even hinting at something like this.

* * *

"It's just you and me against the world...We attack at dawn."

Mandy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

* * *

Harry was terrified.

He was only twelve, going on thirteen. And shouldn't Madame Pomfrey been able to detect this and stop it while he'd been in the hospital wing?

Because seriously? This? This thing right here? It had to have been something to do with the Basilisk having bitten him.

He hadn't _meant _to make eye contact with Mrs Figgs' cat, but it had just happened! Thank god he hadn't been looking at Aunt Petunia when it had spontaneously decided to manifest.

Aunt Petunia had freaked and immediately shoved a pair of sunglasses at him, shrieking at him to send a letter to Those People to make them come and fix it and to not come out of his room until they did.

Harry could still hear the appalled squawk Hedwig had made when she had seen him.

This was five days ago and not only had no one come to help him, Hedwig was still in the wind.

He attempted to run a hand tipped in bronze points through his 'hair', only to be hissed at by his newest full-time companions.

It had taken only perhaps half a second to fully shift in a surge of magic, which was probably why Aunt Petunia had been able to identify what he was and take measures to protect herself so quickly.

Each of his new companions were about the width of his index finger and maybe between 16 and 20 inches long, though it was difficult to tell with how much they moved. Each had a slightly iridescent baby-blue strip down its spine with a matching belly and dark blue-to-black sides with scarlet columns. Each of the little heads were scarlet with pale blue bottom jaws and large eyes made up primarily of large round pupils with thin green irises.

Not to mention that he seemed to have lost all body-hair, including his eyebrows, eyelashes, and pubic hair. His eyebrows were now two lines of rough and ridged scales over his eyes in a shade of dark blue tipped in red, and the eyelashes had somehow morphed into lines of odd, thin mostly-transparent scales that were still curves out and up like his hair-based eyelashes had been, though oddly heavier and of the consistency of fish-scales. He'd been mortified by what he'd found _down there_, and aside from a quick peek to ensure there weren't any scales or _anything else_ down there, Harry generally avoided thinking about or touching _down there._

On the second day, Aunt Petunia had shoved a book through the cat-flap with his meal as he only left his room these days when everyone was asleep, or Aunt Petunia let him know she was going to be downstairs for the next hour while Vernon and Dudley were out. He usually used this time to soak in a bath of near-scalding bathwater since it was pretty much the only thing that could warm him all the way to the bones these days.

Back to the book. It was about snakes and was about the size of an encyclopaedia, going into depth about snake physiology, venom, diet, behaviour and habitats, as well as colour pictures and information on snake families and genus'.

By the time the book was shoved through, Harry had, against everything he knew about them, had to conclude that he was a Gorgon and cold-blooded to boot. The only three known Gorgons were the sisters Medusa, Euryale and Stheno and were most definitely female.

According to the book, the snakes upon his head, his Gorgon-Snakes, were a sub-species of garter-snake known as _Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis_- California Red-sided Gartersnakes. They weren't considered dangerous to humans, though their venom was described as 'unpleasant', and lived in a wide variety of habitats - forests, mixed woodlands, grassland, chaparral, farmlands, often near ponds, marshes, or streams. They were known to escape into water more often than not and ate anything they could swallow, including adult Pacific newts which were known to be deadly poisonous to most predators. They could also grow up to 55in', though the average was around 36in'.

They were quite cute and constantly squabbled with one another and asked Harry ("_Papaa? What'sss that, Papaa?", "Papaa! He nipped me!")_ about everything they could get their cute little blunt noses into. Aside from the constant babble, the heavy shifting weight that _had_ to have been alleviated by internal magic, he could 'hear' the little snakes' emotions at the back of his mind. They were mostly happy, curious little things, and Harry found himself grudgingly fond of them. Even if he now had to sleep on his stomach, against all instincts, so as not to crush them.

By the third day, Harry had succumb to curiosity, and, with the possibility of being like this forever, investigated _down there. _His 'Little Harry' had somehow become twins. With spikes. Harry stopped looking in that direction for a very long time, which was made possible as he had also inherited the snake digestive track, where he no longer urinated, but rather defecated once every so often. So far, he'd only gone once. It was surprisingly difficult and could be smelt for several hours, to Harry's eternal embarrassment.

The next day and a half was spent sprawled out in the patch of sunlight in his room, huddled in a nest of blankets and drowsing.

Harry pulled himself out of his musings, absently separating the Gorgon-snakes next to his left ear that were always squabbling (thank _god_ all his snakes were male), when the doorbell rang. A moment later, Hedwig lit upon his windowsill, tired and oddly ruffled, but with an air of satisfaction.

Vaguely, Harry could hear Aunt Petunia talking to woman with a soothing voice laced with an odd accent. A minute or so later, there was a knock on his door.

Having been raised with manners (as opposed to Dudley) Harry stood and hurriedly kicked his nest under the bed. "Come in."

And that was another thing. His voice was, to his ear, both deeper and softer, vibrating in his chest at a level he suspected Aunt Petunia, the only one who interacted with him these days, could not entirely hear, but was also rough and raspy over the low rumbling. Harry honestly was a little embarrassed that that voice that should belong to a big strong man came from his scrawny pre-teen throat.

Apparently the woman on the other side of the door thought so too, because there was a pause before the door opened slowly.

The woman (at least, that was what he thought they were) was dressed in a full-length type of robe he knew was middle-eastern, but did not know the name of, complete with a partially-sheer full-face veil held down by heavy beads and a length of cloth over her hair.

Harry imagined that he must have been a sight to see; a teenage boy with white skin riddled with the scars he had received from Dudley's 'games', injuries from chores, and the many injuries that had scarred from his time at Hogwarts, clad only in baggy jeans, the better wrap-around sunglasses Aunt Petunia had gotten him, and a head full of slender, brightly coloured, excitedly writhing garter-snakes.

The woman swayed and leant on the doorframe faintly, a hand tipped in bronze nails coming up to hover around where her mouth would be under the veil. "Oh, my." She murmured faintly. "I didn't think it was true. This has never happened before…"The woman was suddenly in Harry's face running the almost clawed fingers along his jawline.

The face he can barely see behind the veil and through his dark lenses was angular with a sharp profile and large eyes of a pale colour, though her skin was darker than his own.

"You have his jawline and cheekbones. Do you feel the pull of the sea?"

Harry blinked at her rather odd question, absently wondering who 'he' was. "I've never been to the seaside. There is a large lake beside my school that I like to be close to, but I don't know how to swim and it is often too cold."

She hummed, an oddly thrumming sound, as the hand continued to caress Harry's face. "Your name is Harry, yes?"

Harry hummed his agreement and was both surprised and suspicious that his own hum was a deeper version of hers. "Harry James Potter. And you are?"

The woman finally took back her hands and folded them before her. "My name is Medusa, but you may call me Aunty Em."

Harry swayed back, eyes widening in surprise as she continued.

"We shall need to attend to Gringotts and see if we are closely enough of relation to transfer your guardianship to me, as well as figure out how your shift was triggered." The woman who was, apparently, a millennia old Gorgon paused and gave the impression of frowning. "Usually, when a child is born to a monster parent and a human parent, the child will either be fully monster or fully human, with no chance of middle ground. For a shift to be triggered, there would have had to be extreme circumstances. Did anything occur that you know about?"

Harry shifted back and relaxed a bit when Hedwig fluttered onto his left shoulder and began attempting to preen his snakes, who thought it was some kind of new game. "I was bitten by an ancient basilisk and healed with phoenix tears a few weeks ago. And some of the blood might have gotten into the wounds, but I would have thought it would have occurred weeks ago if that triggered it."

Medusa hummed again. It was a pleasant sound that caused Harry to relax a little more each time. "It was probably the phoenix tears and blood, though your venom is likely vastly more potent than any mere garter-snake's. After all, the phoenix is all about rebirth and immortality. It would have laid dormant while gathering power to fuel the change so as the shift would occur all at once, rather than leaving you helpless for an indeterminable amount of time. The basilisk blood might have linked your genetics more closely to my own while the tears were looking for something to 'fix' you by making you immortal, or at least long lived."

She appeared to tilt her head. "Do you wish to take anything with you or shall we come back for your belongings later?"

Harry hummed. "It would be best to take my belongings now rather than risk coming back and hurting my relatives. I don't like them much, but they are family. And Aunt Petunia has been pretty good about all this, considering."

Medusa hummed again and glanced around the room in a way that made Harry glad he was mildly OCD about his belongings. She appeared to wriggle her nose at his clothes. "Leave the rags. We will get you better clothing along the way."

The former wizard quickly wriggled under his bed to get at his hidden treasures under the loose floorboard and grabbed the two books he had out to read on the way back up and placed them in his trunk, where he grabbed a button-up school shirt and grey school slacks. On second thought, he also snagged his nest-blankets and stuffed them in before closing the trunk.

Then he turned around to find that 'Aunt Em' had disappeared. There was a moment of panic where he instinctively stuck his tongue out to test the air before he registered the sound of the monster-woman speaking to Aunt Petunia downstairs. Glancing around one last time, Harry departed the smallest bedroom with his beloved Hedwig on his shoulder, never to return.

On the way out, Harry absently picked up the slightly glowing iron statue of Mr Tibbles the Kneazle.

**(space)**

According to the Goblins, Medusa was Harry's great-great-great-grandmother through Chrysaor, who married the rain-nymph Kallirrhoe and had two children, Geryon and the lesser known watermaid Lorelai who laid claim to the River Rhine. Lorelai inserted herself into Scandanavia myth and had three daughters, the Rhinemadens, to Ægir, the jotunn sea god of the Asgardian Pantheon. Loralai later bore a fourth, mortal, daughter to a human sailor named Lynkin Holmes. The daughter, named Canna for the water flower, went on to marry Harold Evans, who had two daughters, Petunia and Lily.

Medusa admitted to being surprised that he hadn't got completely aquatic, though it was likely due to both the fire-based phoenix tears (and isn't that an oxymoron) and the grounding basilisk blood. Still, the inclination was there and Harry was already showing signs of water-talents. And unlike 'true' Gorgons, his blood was so completely of powerful healing properties as to be so poisonous that it had to be diluted in milk to stop it burning through the ritual bowl.

Before they left England for the warmer America, Medusa and Harry discretely used a ritual to change Harry's given name enough that just using Harry James Potter was no longer a recognised name in spells.

And that is how Harrier Jameson Evans-Potter avoided the multitude of tracking spells and the Tri-Wizard Tourney Contract.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

I'll admit to being a little surprised at the response to this. Mostly positive, but I did get one 'I don't like it', so I guest you can't please them all.

I had a question about romances and pairings, but honestly, he's gonna just be like any other young adult in that aspect. Which is to say, toddling along and meeting people and dating and breaking up and so on. But he will, in a way, have children. And keep in mind that, even as an Immortal, he is essentially still a 'baby' in their terms.

* * *

"And as for Billy? No one ever saw him again. But we didn't look that hard."

Grim, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

* * *

Age twenty-three, Harry was sitting outside his comfortable beach-side house at Montauk, absently smoking one of the strong cigarettes he used to dull his senses of taste and smell, watching what he suspected was a young demigod splashing in the surf while his obviously human mother watched from a blanket on the sand.

The kid looked around seven or so with a head of dark brunette hair reminiscent of the hair Harry himself had once had.

The scent of the demigod, the first demigod Harry had yet seen, was like salt on the back of the tongue with an odd milk chocolate taste mixing in. Harry could see why so many monsters felt the desire to eat the poor kids. And that's not taking into account the revenge killings for sending them to Tartarus and petty spite against their godly parents.

Monsters didn't usually come out to Montauk despite its relatively pleasant location. They didn't like being on what was essentially a kill-box, in that it was surrounded on three sides by water.

Harry didn't mind. He liked the whispers of the air and water over the soft, high-pitched sighs of the lesser sea nymphs that haunted the water's edge on warm days and their loud, joyous singing during violent storms.

That was why Harry had claimed Montauk as his territory when he'd turned twenty and moved out of Aunt Em's place. He loved that woman deeply, but sometimes he could hear the echoes of souls trapped in the statues. Not to mention he was looking more and more like Poseidon (and everyone knows how Olympians feel about their relatives), so he had to be careful she didn't try to join him in the bath. Harry had had to put up a mild barrier and markers all around the peninsula to let other monsters know this area was taken and a general idea of who the 'owner' was.

A couple of Empusa and a small flock of Harpies had wandered in in the first year. The Empusa were curious and left after meeting him, but the trio of Harpies, nest-sisters apparently, with the eldest sister's half-human male Harpy-child had been looking for a place to nest since getting kicked out of their flock for not killing the male Harpy-child, whom they considered an aberration, and had set up in the rafters of Harry's boathouse. Having been up there before, Harry could honestly say it was quite comfortable considering it was essentially a large enclosed nest made of wood, straw, cast-off fabric and clothing. He'd even had a small bathroom with a bath installed for them.

There was also a nest of mostly benign sea serpents under one of the piers, a wild herd of eight Hippocampi in the rocky seabeds offshore and a set of sixteen Nereids renting two of his beachside tourist shacks where they kept their on-land belongings, but that was pretty much it.

Occasionally a nomadic monster would brush up against the outer barrier, but few really came in.

And, of course, there was that thing currently making his scales crawl.

Behind his shades, Harry's eyes slid further along the shore line to where a middle-aged man was fishing. He was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt with a blue base and khaki green swim shorts. There also appeared to be a fishing cap beside him. A tackle box was mysteriously missing.

Harry hadn't met any gods personally so he couldn't know for sure, but he suspected that this was one of them, possibly the little demi-god's parent.

Snuffing the cigarette, the Gorgon entered the house and made his way into the basement workshop.

It had taken some experimentation and a lot of urging from Nana Em, but Harry now knew most of the limits of his eyes. So, while _he_ could look into his own metallic green eyes (now zigzagged with thin lines of bronze, gold and grey around a slit pupil) without problems, if he met the eyes of something else in a reflection there was a reaction depending on how clear the reflection was and how powerful the other being was.

If the creature was mundane and sapient, like a human, and they met his gaze in something as reflective as a mirror, they would become completely paralysed to the point that they would stop breathing, their heart would stop beating, but if the reflection was a murky reflection in dim lighting, they would only feel a stiffening in the joints that would fade away after a time.

If a non-sapient animal with higher functioning like a pig or cat saw the murky reflection, the result would be closer to the response of the sapient being while a full mirror reflection would be like looking directly into his eyes. Insects got the full effect no matter what and most of the lower functioning non-sapients would have a response of anywhere between high-functioning non-sapients and insects.

The full gaze without a reflection invariably resulted in a statue of some kind of metal, type varying, or, on rare occasions, a gem-veined statue of minerals or coal depending on the gem. He's once had a very old and much loved and, ultimately, dying golden retriever turn to chalk on him, leaving behind in its remains a couple of dozen of some kind of beautiful gem reminiscent of a fire opal, but not, on average about the size of a large marble.

But the only creatures he could confidently predict what they would turn into were Immortals and magical creatures, and even then he had to hit them with the full weight of his gaze or they just stiffened up a bit. If the Immortal was Roman or the magical creature was air-borne, it would turn into a statue of solid Imperial Gold. If it was Greek or land-based, it would become Celestial Bronze. And if it was an Underworld creature or deemed Otherworldly by nature or superstition, it became Stygian Iron. Water-based and subterranean magical creatures could go either way.

Apparently, Mr Tibbles, being a kneazle, was descended from an Underworld cat-like Immortal named, literally, Big-Ears, hence the purple glow around his Stygian Iron self. It was probably where the cat superstition about having two paws in both Realms came from. It was also interesting to see how fine the work of a Dementor's Cloak was when the Dementor was turned to Stygian Iron. They didn't have legs, you know, and the Cloak was actually a part of them. Why they came after him, he had no idea, but, hey, free Stygian Iron.

Nana Em had dragged poor Harry back to the goblins after the first month and had them check his father's side of the family, where it came about that a member of his father's mother's family, the Blacks, had married a demi-god daughter of Pluto, and a demi-god son of Hades even further back. Apparently, Hades and Pluto had been the favoured blood to be bred into the family since back before the Blacks left Rome in the 200AD for Britain. There were eight in the last fifteen generations alone.

Medusa had made Harry swear on the River Styx to never, ever volunteer the full information about his eyes' power, and to avoid giving full details if asked. He would never be able to leave Olympus or the Underworld is it ever came out, made to make metal for the Gods for the rest of _Ever_.

He also found where his weird luck came from. Hello great grand-nana Eris from the Potter side!

With all his godly blood, he was practically a High Immortal like Medusa, the Minotaur, the Furies and Chiron to name a few. Nana Em was both amused and appalled that there could be more like him running around in the 'Magical World' and they didn't know it.

In the first few years, Harry had been strong-armed into metal-working and blacksmithing as an excuse as to why he had so much metal lying around. It took him a bit, but he eventually became very good at jewellery-making and animal-art statues.

Call it instinct or premonition, but there was always a tingle under his skin when he worked on his statues.

And he had decided that this time he would carry through with the instinct.

Standing in the centre of the magically enlarged hall he called a workroom was a statue of a fine hot-blood horse, mid-canter and tossing its head, mouth open mid-neigh.

It stood around sixteen hands at the shoulders with the long legs and slim build of the Akhal Teke he had based it off, a slim, intelligent head and a deep chest, tail raised like an Arabian, and elegant feathering from heel to hock. The feathering, short mane, long forelock and tail were bright Celestial Bronze from a particularly fluffy and foul-mouthed pair of Jarveys that had somehow gotten into his workshop despite being in the wrong part of the country for them, while the hooves, eyes, teeth, the tips of it ears and forehead blaze were a soft Imperial Gold from a particularly tenacious Roman Faun he'd met in Las Vegas last year who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. All of this was against the dark grey hide of brushed Stygian Iron made from a trio of Hellhounds who had been annoying Nana Em a while back, while the not-fire-opal gems were studded onto its rump like glowing embers rather than the dapples they were modelled off. Two of the most similar in size and shape not-fire-opals made the pupils of the Imperial Gold eyes.

It was beautiful and understated and life-like and _glowing._

And it was an anatomically correct mare on the outside, but his magic should make it biologically so on the inside when he did his thing. Harry just felt there were too many Stallion Immortals running around.

As he had found out at nearly the beginning, his blood was a powerful healing agent, so powerful it would kill without being diluted by at least one-hundred to one in a substance like milk or wine. So, if he put his mind and magic to it, his instincts said he could use his blood to _make-life_ out of something made from one of the so-called Divine Metals, especially Stygian Iron for its ability to absorb any power it came into contact with.

He'd been winding himself up to this since he finished it last month.

His hands tingling, Harry, damned his shortness, climbed the stepladder and opened a vein into its open, hollow mouth, willing his blood and magic and his basic power and personality blueprints into the statue.

And she _glowed._

**(space)**

Harry woke up some hours later with a crick in his neck, dehydrated and a growing migraine from the ever-on-going, apparently vicious argument going on between the Gorgon-snakes Nunu and Baba, as per usual.

Groaning, Harry stretched on the floor like a cat, cracking all the kinks from his body, and dragged himself to his feet to get some water from the fountain, not bothering with a cup and just drinking from the bowl. With his head in the bowl. Submerged.

It was when something butted his butt that he resurfaced and turned around.

"Vashti." Harry smiled and reached out to scratch up under the metal-horse's chin and around the ears. "Means 'most beautiful'. A Persian name for a Persian lady."

Vashti let out a horsey moan of pleasure and leant into her father, glowing gold and fire eyes going half-lidded in pleasure. '_Thank you, father.'_

Harry's smile went sappy at the soft psychic voice of his horse-daughter. "You're welcome, sweetheart. Everything alright? Any stiffness? Hungry?"

The softly glowing mare let out a contented sigh as her father began running his hands across the warm metal of her forequarters and through the weirdly soft metal-not-metal of her Celestial Bronze mane and forelock. '_No, father. I ate some of the food on the table. I do not need much.'_ A glance said she had gotten into the excess metals from her creation that had been piled on a nearby bench. '_I am able to move without issue and my internals appear to be fully formed.'_

Running a hand across the smooth, glass-like gems in her hindquarters, he leant into her hip and lifted a hoof to make sure it was properly formed. "No tenderness in the hooves? The gems don't pull or cause discomfort?"

'_No, father. My hooves are fine, though I would prefer to stand on something softer as I do not have shoes to ease the pressure. And the gems are fine. They are warm and appear to be absorbing and storing heat.'_

"Hmm." Harry stood and regarded them for a moment. "If there are any problems, let me know, okay?" He ran a final hand along her spine. "I want you to hang around my territory for a few days in case something goes wrong, but you may come and go as you will if that is what you want. Stretch your legs and explore a bit."

Harry stretched himself, and began to lead his fully-formed, young adult horse-daughter up the basement stairs to the outside, confident that both the Mist and muggle-repelling wards would protect her from mundane humans, and that her speed and dangerous hooves and teeth would protect her from most other monsters.

"And remember, I don't mind if you choose to bare demi-gods or monsters or humans on your back, but never allow yourself to be willingly harnessed by a god." It was an eff-you to the gods who would no doubt covet his horse-daughter as their own mount. Like hell he'd let her be a slave.

Vashti nodded her gleaming head to show her acknowledgement of the only order written into her Heart, before racing into the now dark Montauk night, light flicking from her hooves and surrounded by a purple and golden haze.

**(space)**

It was about three months later that his beautiful horse-daughter came back.

It was said that Hephaestus himself was livid that someone had outdone him in creating a metal beast, and there were rumours that Hades had set a quest to catch her to the demi-gods before the other gods could. There were even murmurs that Poseidon himself had taken on the form of a handsome white stallion to run her down, though none could say if he caught her or not.

Given the storms this season, Harry was leaning towards 'not'.

And no one knew for sure where she came from, except maybe Medusa, but she wasn't telling.

They were calling her 'The Gem-Studded Mare'.

Harry was just so proud of his baby. And a little afraid for her.

Until she brought back her 'presents', then he just wanted to slam his head against a wall.

**(space)**

He'd been minding his own business, reading a book before the fire-pit on his beach-side patio, warded against the wind and rain that poured down outside, just before midnight, when he registered Vashti coming through the territory wards with guests.

She didn't bother waiting for the three forms on her back to dismount, just walked through the patio wards and sat down beside the fire.

Thankful that he was wearing his spelled one-way glasses because of Hedwig up in the rafters and Misting his sleeping Gorgon-snakes into black braids in case of passers-by, all Harry would do was blink blankly at the three young people awkwardly getting off Vashti's back.

With a sigh and a flick of the hand, the three children and horse were dry and wrapped in blankets.

The demi-gods, for that was what they were, were two young adolescents, a boy with blond hair and a girl with dark hair, and a little blond girl of around seven.

Harry closed his book and stood, ignoring the way the two adolescents nudged the little girl behind them and discreetly rested hands on what were probably weapons.

"So," he began as he moved towards the open patio doors towards the kitchen. "Sandwiches and then bed. You can tell me whatever you want about your circumstances in the morning."

In full view of the children, Harry made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, got out a bottle of milk to heat up and brought the lot out.

Seeing them hesitate, the young Gorgon went back into the house for a bucket of metals and minerals for Vashti, as well as set up a queen-sized bed in one of the downstairs spare bedrooms. One they could lock from the inside and had windows big enough for a child to fit through, but would hamper anything bigger trying to get in.

Next on the list were some of his oversized soft-flannel bed-shirts and track pants which he left on the bed along with a pile of extra blankets.

When he wandered out a few minutes later with Vashti's dinner, the three were huddled against her flank and only the boy was still awake, though struggling. The milk and sandwiches were cleaned out.

Hedwig, getting old though she was, had sat herself upon Vashti's back over the little girl and appeared to be keeping watch.

Harry hummed and brought the bucket over to where the beautiful mare was drowsing, turning to the boy he spoke softly, "The bed's ready. I hope you don't mind sharing, but I figured you'd want to stay together."

The boy nodded and extracted himself from the blankets and the little girl's grip so he could wake the other teen and pick up the sleeping child.

Still on watch, Hedwig jumped onto the teenaged girl's shoulder as the warily followed him into his house to the bedroom down the hall beside the stairs and across from the second bathroom.

Showing the two conscious teens the room, he left with the comment, "The door locks from the inside."

Harry was unsurprised to hear the click behind him.

**(space)**

Having spent the night awake and morosely braving the rain at intervals to patrol his territory for any hostiles, it was no real surprise to him when he was still awake and drinking nectar-laced coffee by morning.

Mostly ignoring the clatter of Vashti eating the metals in the bucket he brought out the night before, then the tin bucket itself, then the ashes in the fire-pit (to which Harry just rolled his eyes), the Gorgon began making a fruit and cereal breakfast for the little demi-gods the wards said were still sleeping like the dead under Hedwig's protective gaze.

Once done with the fruit smoothies and the machine that pulped them, Harry ventured out into the sunny dawn to plop back down in his wicker chair while Vashti chewed drowsily on a cud of ash and metal, his Gorgon-snakes lethargic and quiet from the cold.

Observing his daughter, Harry was a little surprised to find flashes of diamonds in her feathering and a mix of garnets and tiger's eyes in her mane and tail. It made him wonder if she would assimilate what she ate and her appearance would change as she evolved.

"So… Daughter-mine. What the hell?"

Vashti gave her father a sideways, hooded stare, still chewing. '_You said I could allow anyone I wanted to upon my back."_

The look he gave back was more than a little shirty. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

Vashti heaved a sigh and shook herself. '_After I shook off that weirdo water stallion, Posi-something, I wandered across the two older children as they escaped from a monster's den in the place called Virginia. They used some kind of fire to destroy the building and the monsters in it and I followed them to a small brick building with sinks and porcelain bowls where they cleaned themselves and tended their injuries. Not long after, they found the child in an alley close by and took her with them. They were going somewhere, but were attacked again.' _

Vashti paused and gave her father another sideling look, though he remained silent. '_I could not just leave them there. They are just children and should not be alone in the first place. So I brought them here to you.'_

The last bit was hopeful.

Harry light up a cigarette and rubbed his daughter's ears to show he wasn't that upset, thinking over the dilemma.

He'd thought about saving lost demi-god children before, back when he was younger and less jaded. Maybe two in five demi-gods ever made it to one of the Camps, and Lupa sometimes killed demi-gods she considered weak herself, so there were many children dying out there and he couldn't really do much.

Harry paused as his fingertips tingled. From experience, the tingling would get stronger if he followed through with one of these thoughts, though he couldn't yet tell if it were a good thing or a bad thing when the tingling got stronger.

Harry clicked his tongue thoughtfully, mind turning to the trio of statues that had been sitting in the workroom for a while. "It would appear you will be gaining some siblings soon." The young monster stood. "There is food for the children on the kitchen bench. Don't let them leave until I come back out to talk to them."

Trying to think of what he missed, Harry scratched his chin and smirked at Vashti. "Also, that water stallion was likely Poseidon, the Greek sea god and one of the Big Three. Some would expect you to be flattered by his attentions."

Vashti snorted and tossed her bejewelled head, burning eyes rolling in annoyance. '_Well, I am not 'some people'. And he smelt of salt. I don't want to rust!'_

Harry laughed loudly at her and was still chortling as he made his way down into his workroom.

* * *

Also Vashti is only based on an Akhal Teke with bits of other horses thrown in for Harry's aesthetic viewing pleasure, like the feathering on her legs and the appaloosa 'dappling'.

Cheers!


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognised as belonging to someone else, up to and not limited by, Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.**

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews, and if you haven't yet read **'Glorious Chaos' **by Undercover Operative yet, then you totally should, since this story would never have been posted since they gave me the inspiration to start in this fandom.

Also, more humanoid 'children' will eventually pop up, but they're mostly animal-shaped for now.

* * *

**Billy**: You know Grim, if you didn't give me the scythe in the first place, this kind of thing would never happened!

_Pause._

**Grim**: I hate you, Billy.

**Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.**

* * *

Harrier called them the Bird, the Beast and the Wyrm.

The Bird was about the size of a man in body size alone with long peacock-green wings tipped in flight feathers every colour of the metallic spectrum, a slightly longer neck topped with a larger head with a large, densely-feathered crest and a hooked beak, and extravagant tail-feathers akin to the lovechild of a phoenix and a Bird of Paradise. The long legs were akin to a stork and tipped in some serious claws. Overall, it looked like the offspring of a peacock and a secretarybird.

Her name would be Aleta, meaning 'winged' in most languages, but the Greek translation would be 'truthful'. Her purpose was primarily intelligence and seeking, with a lesser specialization in extraction. If worse came to worst, her voice would be able to put anything to sleep. Hopefully.

She was made with what was originally particularly pale Imperial Gold 'coloured' by finely ground gemstones mixed into the melted metal while it was in liquid form, though other, tiny, gemstones had been studded into her spread wings and tail feathers, with two deep red garnets making the eyes and a dusting of rare uvarovite, a bright green garnet, where the masking on her face would occur.

The Beast, Aniketos, whose name meant 'never conquered', was admittedly stolen shamelessly from a movie Harry had seen and then looked up. The progenitors of Aniketos were the Hell Hounds of 'Chronicles of Riddick', which were genetically engineered animals containing characteristics of ursine (bear), feline, canine and reptile groups and were, from there, bred for speed and strength.

He had the head and jaws of a bear, neck and torso of a mastiff, legs and tail of a large predatory cat and covered in large, sharp scales like scale-mail.

He was also both bigger and bulker than Vashti and made of a partially dark kind of Celestial Bronze that was almost black, with two big orbs of brightly burnished Stygian Iron for eyes, which would allow him to see colours and layers that mammals couldn't usually make sense of. Like invisibility. Each of his reptilian teeth were sharp obsidian and his retractable lightning-glass claws were backed by poisonous glands.

While difficult to notice, he was, in fact, decorated like his sister, only it was in terms of scrolling etched into his scales. Delicate little patterns that would be worn away quickly were he made of anything less durable than a Divine Metal.

He was, predictably, the frontal-assault and pursuit member of the set.

The last set member, the Wyrm, was Alasd, the avenger. He was more a bastardized snake than an actual wyrm, as he was heavier set, had a longer, sharper, more dragon-like head and lacked the front legs of traditional wyrms, but retained the stubby back legs for grasping and propelling and, while he did have wings, they were small and pulled tight to his back for subterranean travel as well as short distance gliding, but not prolonged flight.

Harry had nearly forgone the wings until he was watching 'Tremors' late one night while he was still in the sketching stage. No baby of his was gonna be tricked out of a cliff-face to his death!

Like Aleta was Imperial Gold and Aniketos was Celestial Bronze, Alsad was Stygian Iron. Also, he was between his showy sister and understated brother in terms of decoration. Emerald and amber were sparsely studded from his sharp head to his split prehensile tails, being, overall, around thirty feet long and about as round as a man. His large eyes were fist-sized chunks of bight, clear amber and his teeth were a comparatively bright white mother of pearl.

He was the defensive stealth specialist who hung back and attacked when the enemy least expected it, and covered his sibling's backs when they retreated. He was also blessed with the power to go insubstantial to aid in his tunnelling.

Harry was still throwing back blood-replenishing potions like they were shots an hour after they were all quickened, each having been 'born' a full half-hour after one another.

'_And now?_' Aleta's voice was the soft and soothing sound a mother's lullaby or the lowing of a bamboo flute. '_You brought us into being for a purpose, yes?' _And Harry desperately hoped she would not run with that habit of ending her sentences with a question.

'_The demi-gods.' _ Harry's beast son's voice was the roar of a furnace, the scratching of crushed gravel and the boom of thunder all in one. He could already tell that Aniketos' would be like a commander of old; no nonsense, strict and strategic-minded though hot-blooded, while still having a mind as predictable as a bag of startled and high alley cats. '_We find them, bring them here and go find more.'_

Harry sighed and drank more of the mineral- and additive-heavy water, scratching his bronze-tipped fingers between his lethargic Gorgon-snakes, absently noticing that they were now wiggling around past his butt. "That's right. Roman or Greek, it doesn't matter, but only if they aren't already claimed by either a satyr of Camp Half-Blood or a wolf of Wolf House, and they have to agree to come. Promise them sanctuary, promise them weapons, promise them Home. Promise them anything within reason, but do not lie. Shit happens when highly-strung kids with powers get lied to." Thinking about what he, himself, had figured out as he grew up the rest of the way in a relatively stable home, monster-wise, he added, "Especially when they figure it out."

'_And if they are too young to understand what is happening?' _Alasd's voice was a deep gong or Buddhist prayer bell, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

Yes, Harry had considered that. "If they have family nearby, approach them about it. If they are alone, just bring them back here. I'll figure something out. But make sure the parent knows how dangerous it is for them to keep the kid outside a safe-zone. Tell them I'll even give them a job in the area and housing if they want it. I'll need caretakers for the kids anyway. Anything else, use your own judgement."

'_And if we run across gods or demi-gods from the Camps?' _Aniketos inquired gruffly, idly rattling his scales in a testing manner.

"Just pull back and leave them. Don't get aggressive and they'll probably leave you alone. If not, you'll be able to outrun them." Harry tilted his head in thought. "Probably."

The Beast chuffed in exasperated amusement.

'_Nanu-nanu. You can't catch me.'_ Alasd mocked an invisible opponent, voice conveying a dry humour, causing Harry to snigger.

Harry stretched again and stood from his stool. "Anything else? Cause I got shit to do."

Anketos dragged his claws across the floor as he stretched and Alasd flexed his scaled muscles as he began to unwind. Aleta fidgeted on her large perch.

'_We can still come back, yes? Even if we have not found a child, yes?'_ And there went his hope about the question-sentences.

"Of course you can. You're still my bouncing baby brats, after all. I'd be a bit upset if you didn't." Aleta trilled a few soft noted of relief, relaxing, as Alasd swatted his twin-tails at his father half-heartedly for the teasing.

**(space)**

With his new babies sent out into the wide blue yonder, each equipped with a mirror connected to one he kept in a locket around his neck, Harry meandered upstairs around noon.

He paused and blinked in the doorway, head tilting at the gathering in his lounge room, surrounding his 70'in plasma screen TV, lights off and several bowls of popcorn and M&M's being passed around.

The kids were indeed in the room, cuddling together on the large couch he liked to spread out on. What was unexpected was the fact that all sixteen of the Nereids had also squished in on the couch and lounge chairs and spilled onto the floor. The Harpy sisters, Arie, Acantha and Adara, as well as little Dominic, were also in attendance, perched on the kitchen stools with a big bowl of Doritos between them. Vashti lay against the wall, peacefully watching the movie with three of the Nereids lounging against her flank like it was a regular thing.

And they were watching bloody Disney's Hercules.

Nana Em had been very offended by how that movie and the subsequent series portrayed her.

Losing interest as the red-haired hero dropped a giant rock on the Hydra, Harry wandered into the kitchen and began to make a fruit and nut salad, as well as a double batch of brownies since the Nereids went all to pieces on him if he didn't make them for their esteemed chewing pleasure. He knew they were faking it to get their way, but he'd always been weak to pretty girls crying at him.

Though, give him a crying male and all they'd get was a weirded-out look.

Hearing the pitter-patter of bare feet as he was sectioning an orange, he glanced up to identify the short and curvy Hallie with her big brown eyes and glossy black curls beside the tall and slender Galatea with her milk-white skin, white-gold tresses and almond-shaped black seal's eyes.

Both were still wearing their white sea-foam dresses, inferring they'd just come out of the water.

Galatea picked up a green apple and began breaking the skin with her teeth and sucking out the juices while Hallie wiggled at him like an excited puppy.

"So what's the gos'?" Hallie demanded, leaning across the counter at him.

Harry just raised an eyebrow and continued cutting. "You're gonna have to specify which gos' you're referring to."

Galatea pulled the apple away from her mouth long enough to pitch in, "The Mare first. The Gods're in a tizzy trying to catch her, and she's just sitting in there like she lives here."

He felt his lip twitch. "Well, technically, this is her home, what with me being her father and all."

Galatea promptly choked on a piece of apple her teeth had broken off and Hallie slipped ungracefully from the stool to the floor.

"Since when?!" Hallie demanded, pulling herself up from the floor.

Harry was valiantly containing a smirk. "Since I made her and used my blood to give her life."

Galatea finally cleared her throat of apple. "That's High stuff, Harry. How in Tartarus did you get that kind of Power?"

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "At a guess? I'm gonna take option three and blame an obscure prophecy no one remembers the wording to. And possibly just good breeding." He absently sipped a suspiciously chunky dull red smoothie he had to his left.

"Do tell." Melite purred, loosely wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaning on him from her superior height, long straight tresses of midnight feathering around his torso.

Harry hoped she didn't notice the movements of the snakes. The Nereids knew he was a young Immortal, but they didn't know for sure if he was a monster (and if so, what kind) nor if he was someone a god or goddess had decided to 'keep'. Or if he had just somehow found a way to Immortality like Circe and Medea. Apparently, he was just so good at manipulating Mist and glamours that he could fool the senses of even minor goddesses.

Harry shrugged and moved onto another orange as the one dripping juice was snatched out of his hand by the bronze-skinned, red-haired Erato, who had obviously lost interest in the movie and followed her sisters into the kitchen out of boredom. "I have two gods and a goddess in my ancestry in the last seven generations that I know about, so it might just be a good match of powers interacting. I'm not really that talented in war magics, to be honest, as I lean more towards defensive and the other, more subtle, stuff."

"Really? Who?" Speio demanded, using her ridiculously tiny height of 4'6ft to wiggle under Harry's left arm and wrap her tiny arms around his waist, staring up at him with her big blue-green eyes and fluffy chocolate curls.

"Well, Poseidon, obviously. My three times great grandfather on my mother's, mother's side through Lorelai." Harry admitted, finally giving up on any more oranges and passed the skinned citrus to Erato, who proceeded to maul the fruit. He awkwardly shuffled around with the two Nereids wrapped around him and washed his hands before continuing. "My father's father, on the other hand, was a son of Eris, who married a Black from the British Wizard family, who were known to obsessively marry the children of Hades and Pluto since before they moved from Rome around the 500AD, with eight in the last fifteen generations alone." His lips quirked a bit as he grabbed the sweet citrus dressing and a packet of pine nuts for the salad from the upper cupboard above the microwave. "Really pissed them off when the Big Three made that Pact."

All five of the Nereids were now watching him with raised eyebrows, but it was Galatea who spoke. "That'd do it. Life came from the seething oceans, jewels and ore rose from the deep earth and a little chaos to create just the right circumstances to round it off."

Speio sucked on the edge of her lip in thought before offering, "Blood is the Memory's River. They would have picked up some of the subliminal thought and behavioural patterns, too. Maybe some powers?"

The ladies shared a look and appeared to drop the subject in favour of the next one.

"The Mare? Vashti, was it? Why her and that shape?" Halie inquired. Erato grabbed another orange from the bowl and began peeling it with the discarded paring knife, watching silently.

Having tossed in the nuts and added the dressing, the large salad bowl was covered and placed in the smaller under-counter fridge he used for what he needed while cooking. "I like pretty things and my mild precognitive powers said it would be a good idea." Harry smiled. "Besides, I've always wanted a sweet baby girl I could spoil rotten. And she's a horse because I'm honestly not very good at getting close to people."

The girls glanced at each other again, as if confirming they would discuss it amongst themselves later.

"And the little demi-gods?"

Having sat on a stool with Melite still leaning on him and Speio having crawled onto his lap, all Harry could do was shrug.

"Vashti brought them here. Haven't had a chance to speak with them though, so I'll have to do that later." His hands tingled briefly but strongly. "I've always felt the need to do something about the demi-god mortality rate, and this had just given me an excuse to do so. I've already given life to three more of my children and sent them out to find unclaimed demi-gods."

Melite hummed thoughtfully. "But aren't they the Camps' problems?"

Harry felt his lips curl and a 'teh' of disgust left his mouth. "The Camps only really bother with demi-gods once they reach adolescence, mostly. Most of the kids are dead or damaged by then. Did you know only maybe, at best, two out of five demi-gods reach a Camp?" The appalled looks on their faces was enough of an answer, so he continued on. "Those older kids in there have probably been runaways for years now, and the little girl is already showing signs of aggression and undirected rage against pretty much everyone." Harry 'teh'ed again. "Those kids at the Camps make a good showing of being normal, but they're very much unstable and reckless. Most don't even really associate normal humans with people, only nameless, faceless things to be protected to an extent, but gladly thrown under the bus to save themselves if necessary."

Attempting to restrain the helpless anger at the situation, he didn't notice Speio noticing the deep scratches he was putting into the marble bench with his 'human' nails.

"Those places aren't safe havens, they're indoctrination camps to make good little warriors and pawns for the gods. When they leave as adults, most of them are so unhappy with their mundane lives they end up homeless vagabonds who hunt monsters and are killed quicker since they no longer have even a hint of protection from their 'parents' anymore. And that's only if they don't kill themselves. The ones held up as shining icons to the campers are the vast minority."

Hissing softly, Harry shook himself. "It's pointlessly cruel to all involved but the gods who perpetuate the cycle."

None of the Nereids, nor Harry, noticed the pale and horrified boy slipping back down the hallway to the bedroom the kids slept in.

Feeling a zap zing up his spine, the hidden Gorgon gently pushed Speio of his lap, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Please excuse me. Aleta has returned with a guest."

As Harry slipped out onto the back porch to greet the large, brightly coloured metal bird, the Nereids looked at each other.

"Do you think we should look into it?" Halie asked her sisters uncertainly.

Erato grimaced slightly when she realised her sixth orange was a blood orange, oddly fitting given the conversation. "He doesn't really have a reason to lie. And that anger was genuine. It wouldn't surprise me if it were true, either, given how many women the gods' bed, and everyone knows Aphrodite, Demeter and Athena pop out brats like clockwork. Athena even does it quicker with how she makes her children from thoughts." She put down the red citrus and sighed. "The numbers don't really add up when you consider how few demi-gods there are."

Just then, Harry walked back in with a small, toddler-sized bundle as the bird once again took to the sky. "Do any of you know healing and or anything to reduce scarring? Cause he really needs it."

The little boy of about four looking around the room curiously had a bright blue eye and a great gaping hole where the other should have been. Scars mangled the left side of his face and he was missing his right arm from mid-wrist down. They were mostly healed into red welts and small sections of greenish pus.

Galatea gagged and bolted for the bathroom as the remaining sisters stared in something like horrified guilt.

* * *

I didn't actually intend to end it like that, but this is the way the detour around the writer's block took me, so eh.

All the Nereids are Named Nereids and you can find the list at Nook of Names. 

'Til next time.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.**

I had someone ask about how Harry's blood could be deadly when it has healing properties. Essentially, it is too powerful and potent, so while it would heal the body to the extreme, the 90 percent of the power left behind has no where to go and begins to lash out to find an escape route, causing cellular death. Or something. Just does.

* * *

His name was Danny, Aleta had told her father, and he had been with a group of demi-gods who were on their way there from further into New York.

They were being led by an adult demi-god who had never been to either of the Camps, though he knew of them and their general locations. There were twelve in that group with Danny having been both the youngest and newest member, rescued from a small pack of Immortal werewolves from Lycaon's Pack, where he lost his demi-god mother and was fortunate enough not to be infected.

The rest ranged from six to nineteen, with the leader being twenty-seven. While he, himself, chose to stay out of the Camps, the leader, Richard Ryder, did give the other demi-gods directions and sometimes an escort to the Camps, and was on his way to Camp Half-Blood when Aleta had found them. Richard was bringing his group to Harry to see if it would be viable to leave the younger and more delicate members with Harry, as well as speak to the demi-gods already in residence.

His second, Jackie, was the nineteen year old and had chosen to stay with Ryder since they met up when she was ten, and had already been on the street for two years, as well as in and out of the foster system since she was three and her father died in a 'gas explosion'.

They would be there at around midmorning the next day, but had sent Danny ahead in the hopes that he would get some better medical attention than what they would provide.

Actaea and Protomedea had had to be pulled out of movie time since they were the best at healing and mothering respectively, and had taken the kid into the bathroom while Halie and Speio went for Actaea's healer's box.

Galatea, Erato and Melite had disappeared back into the waves, saying they had something to do, but would be back soon.

The two demi-god girls were still curled up on the couch with the twins Doto and Proto with Asia perched on the end. Leaving the group to watch the opening scenes of Aladdin, Harry went to find the boy.

The boy was in the room they had slept in, reading what appeared to be a journal, an unhappy frown creasing his face.

"Hey, kid."

The boy's head snapped up and the book was slammed closed. "Yes? Can I help you?"

Harry regarded the kid for a moment. "I don't know if you've been told yet, but I'm Harrier, or Harry, Master of this Territory. Nothing more powerful than a normal human can enter without my knowing about it. And you are?"

"Luke." The boy responded warily. "Are you a demi-god?"

Harry tilted his head away and sighed. "Kinda. I'm an Immortal legacy of a few gods. The blood of my progenitors was powerful enough that I became Immortal when I was bitten by a basilisk and subsequently healed with phoenix tears." Harry's smile was a bit bitter. "Had there not been an overdose of the tears, I would have stayed human and unchanged." He tilted his head back to Luke. "Lunch will be served soon, so don't immerse yourself too deeply, or you'll miss out to the Nereids."

The blond kid looked surprised. "Those women are Nereids?"

Harry nodded agreeably and turned to go. "A group of older demi-gods will be arriving tomorrow morning if you want to stay. They sent an injured kid ahead for healing, so don't be surprised at how bad he looks."

And he wandered back down to his workshop, mind already designing two new, humanoid, children to protect the new Sanctum and those who took sanctuary there.

Also, it would probably be a good idea to have the goblins make, ward and ground a pocket dimension for the Sanctum. Land was expensive these days.

**(space)**

The two girls were Annabeth and Thalia, as Harry learnt over lunch, which included the salad he'd made earlier, some fish grilled in his fire-pit by the Nereids and bread-rolls.

He didn't know what god was Thalia's parent, but her scent was strong and heavy, like melted dark cooking chocolate and burnt ozone, and the charm bracelet she wore tasted vaguely like raw terror on the back of his tongue. He would honestly not be surprised if one of the Big Three had broken the vow for her to smell so strongly.

It was when he pulled out the brownies that he was forced to snatch Annabeth from her chair and out of the way of the lunging Nereids.

The Harpies left not long after and the girls followed the water nymphs back into the lounge room to watch Sleeping Beauty, Luke managed to find Harry's library/office and was reading up on the Monster Book of Monsters.

Actaea and Protomedea had re-emerged from upstairs with Danny all bandaged up around 2pm and he was now drowsing in Thalia's protective arms.

Seeing the demi-god girl and the toddler cuddling sent a throb through Harry's hands, and he made a mental note to ask her about her family once she was more settled.

Doing another circuit around the house, he noticed that Vashti was gone again and Hedwig was passed out on the back of the chair that Luke was settled in for company. Clicking his tongue, Harry popped his head back into the lounge room to let the nearest Nereid (Phyllodoce) know he was running into town and might be a few hours, then popped into the office to see if Luke needed anything.

Looking distinctly uncomfortable, he admitted that Thalia needed some more feminine hygiene products, as she was nearly out and it was getting towards that time of the month.

Harry could only imagine it was because the smell of demi-god blood attracting more monsters that the boy knew her 'timing'.

Collecting a few sketches from the workroom he'd made earlier, he left with a 'pop' to the local magical district.

**(space)**

Someone with a horrible sense of humour thought that naming a small island in the New York Bay 'World's End' was funny. It might have been because it was completely edged in cliffs, but then it might not have. Who knows how wizardly minds work.

The Gringotts there looked exactly the same as the one in Diagon Alley and the one he'd been to in New Jersey with Nana Em. Indeed, if rumour were to be believed, all the banks were the same above the surface.

Harry only came to World's End around once a month, but he always stopped in his favourite curios shop located at the crossroads of Frog Street and Torch Row.

It was run by a young woman with black hair and green eyes named Katie, though sometimes her blond and black-eyed sister, Via, would be in attendance. Very rarely, the cousin, Endia, would mind the shop with her violet eyes constantly watching those who passed before the shop, twirling her brunette hair around her finger.

It was an old, slightly cramped place with a dark wood front and small shop window that was beginning to wear away the varnish. The small swing-sign said 'Hecate's Attic'. Inside the floor was warn, warped and creaky floorboards and cramped with shelf after shelf of miscellaneous items, artefacts and the odd tome.

The black Labrador, Hekabe, as he had heard Katie call her, looked up and thumped her tail in greeting as he entered, tongue lolling happily.

He leant down and scratched her behind the ears before moving on, smiling slightly. Hekabe was the only dog he'd met since his change that hadn't been afraid of him. Or tried to attack him.

The she-ferret running around, Galinthias, was a bit more wary, but generally left him alone.

Turning left and going to the furthest of the four cramped isle to where he had seen some god-statues and some tomes about the gods written in Greek and Latin.

Finding the little bronze and the odd stone statues, he looked over the little figures and carefully selected five goddesses which he felt would heed his call to protect the place he was going to make.

He was thinking about merely calling the place 'Home', because that was what it was going to be to many demi-gods who had lost or been forced to leave their own. And then there were the ones who had never really had one to begin with.

It took him a bit to figure out which ones two of them were, but he had the idols he had come looking for, as well as a book on the gods, including history, powers and how to appease or petition them.

Collecting the items, he wove his way to the counter manned by Endia, who quirked a smile at him as she began ringing up his purchases, eyes lingering on the book and the statues with a kind of sardonic curiosity and amusement.

"Interesting selection. What _are_ you up to, Harry?" She inquired, voice smooth with an almost singsong quality tinged by an accent the Gorgon found oddly familiar.

Harry hummed, the sound throbbing deeply in his chest as he considered his words. "I am founding a place of safety for children with certain gifts and would like to petition certain goddesses for their patronage." Both vague and informative. Nice.

Endia smiled at him, purple eyes flashing in the light flooding in through the window. "Then I'm sure you'll get what you want, if your motives are true."

Harry smiled back awkwardly, unsure, as he paid for his purchases. "Then I've gotta hope my motives are true _enough_. Gods and goddesses are notoriously picky and fickle."

The brunette laughed at him, voice ringing like water over stone in the small shop as he waved goodbye and exited.

Shifting his purchases into a mokeskin pouch he had in one of the pockets of his jeans, Harry proceeded down Torch Row to Gringotts and asked for Grindellaquin, his contact in this branch.

Grindellaquin, the only gobliness he's ever seen, let alone met, glowered at him over the paperwork in front of her, crouched on her perch and surrounded by ledgers, before tossing a bundle of letters at him from the increasingly distressed magic folk in Britain with her tail.

Funny thing about female goblins was that they were actually very attractive to the human eye in a distinctively Unseelie Fey manner. They had smooth lavender-grey skin stretched over a sharp waifish face with large black eyes, sharp noses and wide, thin lips that hid rows of pearly white sharp teeth similar to a cat's. Only about the size of an eight-year-old, their limbs were long and graceful and tipped in sharp points like his own, more hard caps than nails, with lean, slender torsos, four to eight small breasts and, of course, the long slender, prehensile tails twice the length of their bodies. Generally, they were built to walk on the balls of their feet and moved in a creeping manner over short distances, but stood up to walk longer distances in a swaying manner, inferring that their hips and joints were slightly different to those of most bipedal creatures. Grindellaquin's hair was thigh-length, pin straight and a pale silvery-grey, but he was under the impression that the ladies' hair could come in the same range of shades as the males'.

Grindellaquin, unlike her female kin, was permitted to work in the bank after an accident rendered her sterile, which was a very bad thing as the males outnumbered the females 100 to 1. Honestly, the gobliness' were more like hive queens than the females of most mammalian species, barring the naked mole rats, who were just odd. Harry was under the impression that quite a number of goblins involved in the accident had been executed for the loss of a breeding female as young as Grindellaquin was.

Harry had been her first client and they got along well, considering that they would probably be paired together until she died of old age.

The Gorgon settled down to read the letters while Grindellaquin finished her survey of any changes his holdings had been through in the last month since he'd seen her.

The letters ranged from pleas to demands to orders to outright bribery from the ministry, and a sticky-note listed the number of spells and enchantments that had been on the letters, a few more from Sirius Black who had moved to Australia and whom he regularly corresponded with, several from Dumbledore, which were thrown into the fire, and a letter from Hermione Granger giving a mostly unbiased update on the 'war', having distanced herself from most everyone after he had left and Grindellaquin had sent back a list of spells and potions her first five letters had been drenched in by Dumbledore.

Hermione was someone he still felt bad about essentially abandoning. She had broken off her friendship with Ronald early in third year and gravitated back to Neville Longbottom, who later got her a job as assistant librarian to Madam Pince when even her highest NEWT scores in fifty years couldn't give her a job above 'secretary and bed-warmer' in one of the lesser departments at the ministry because of her blood. She was a bitter, brittle woman who seemed to cherish those letters he sent back maybe once every six months.

His attention was drawn back to the gobliness when she clicked her tongue at him, a common way of requesting attention between goblins that most other races didn't bother to pick up on.

Harry put the letters down and gave her his full attention.

Her voice, when she spoke, was a perfectly normal contralto voice that, at the same time, had a subsonic whine to it like a cross between a cat's plaintive meow for food and a mosquitos' buzzing. "Harvest has begun at the coffee plantation in Brazil and looks to be a good yield. Gold diving in Alaska is set to start as soon as the ice thaws enough. The Racing stables in Ireland will start foaling any day now and the latest yield for the vineyards in the Hunter Valley, Australia, was excellent this season."

She shifted papers to rental properties.

"The apartment building in Trenton, New Jersey, needs its plumbing updated sometime this year and one of the tenants moved out. The Venice chateau needs a kitchen update and some of the tiles in the bathroom were cracked, so they're not getting their deposit back. Potter Manor needs fumigating as there's been a sudden and overwhelming invasion of doxies that the House Elves are unable to deal with on their own. And that's pretty much it, unless you want me to bring out the stock folder."

The look she gave him and the tone she said it in gave the impression that he had better not. Grindellaquin hated stocks with a passion, though she was really quite good at them.

Harry gave a polite smile. "That's fine. I trust your ability to handle those." She relaxed a bit, pleased. "But I do have a request that you might hate me for." Her wide black eyes narrowed suspiciously, long fingers twitching towards the silver letter-opener to her left.

"Go on."

"I need a piece of land big enough for a small town, some paddocks and a water source to be warded to high heaven and preferably sealed in a Reality Marble with between four and eight mobile gates."

She stared at him, completely still and expression deadpanned for a few moments, before quickly reaching out and throwing a solid gold paper weight at him, which he barely dodged.

"Do you know how much that will cost?" She demanded, teeth bared. "We will likely have to sell property to afford it!"

Harry smoothed out his grimace as her voice began to resemble a cat's yowl. "Yes. I know. But I am willing to…" Here he winced and braced himself. "…sell some of my statues and raw materials."

Grindellaquin settled back, expression shrewd.

Ever since the goblins had found out that Harry had some means of acquiring or making Divine Metals, they had been trying to get their hands on a contract for Harry to supply them with the processed metals. There had been almost an uproar when he had started to move some of his statue artworks into a high security vault to clear space in his workshop, both for what they were made of and their quality craftsmanship. One piece of Celestial Bronze the size of a terrier would be worth one hundred thousand Galleons in private sale, and more on auction. Something the size of Vashti was enough to give a goblin consecutive heart attacks just thinking about it.

Harry really didn't want to know what they'd do if they found out he could do jewellery too.

The gobliness made a high, sharp sound with her lips and teeth, eyes calculative as she nodded slowly. "I shall take your proposal to the Board. Come back tomorrow and we will sort out details."

Taking the dismissal, Harry nodded and left her office, the small female stalking along behind him to exit the office herself, only going down the hall, deeper into Gringotts, while he re-entered the main gallery.

Strolling out of the building, the Gorgon made a bee-line for a restaurant that did takeaway, mind ticking over what he needed to get done while he was on World's End, when the mirror locket thrummed against his chest.

Taking out the palm-sized pendant, he flipped it open to show Aniketos' seated fore-paws and a small group of young teenagers.

"Hello?" He inquired.

The girl at the front, maybe fourteen and of strong Spanish descent, very beautiful with lustrous black hair, big dark eyes and coffee-coloured skin, edged forward. "Hello?" There was that soothing note to her voice that said she was a Charmspeaker, so she was probably a daughter or legacy of either Venus or Aphrodite. "Aniketos…?" She looked hesitantly up at the large Beast, who presumably nodded. "Aniketos says that you have a place where we will be safe from monsters. Is it true?"

Harry didn't let the pain he felt in his chest show at the pathetically pleading despair in her face and voice, and on the faces of the three younger demi-gods crowding around her back. "That is correct. I am currently in the process of finding a larger, more stable place but my home is warded strongly enough that it would take genuine effort from a High monster to get in, and even then it will have to face the demi-gods and other beings who have taken sanctuary there." Harry grabbed a menu and leant against the open entry wall of the restaurant. "There are currently four other demi-gods there and a larger group of older and adult demi-gods will be arriving around lunch tomorrow. If you want to leave with the roving leader of that group, or go to one of the Camps, I won't stop you, but you will be as safe as is possible while in my home."

The girl looked like she was about to cry with relief. "Please…"

Harry nodded his consent. "That's fine. Do you know where you are and how long it will take you to reach Long Island, New York? If you are close enough, I can come and get you."

She looked a bit worried and had a quick whispered conversation with one of the others, who pulled out a map and compass. "We're in the Catskills Mountains, in Ulster Country. We're in a place called Phoenicia Black Bear Campgrounds. Will it take you long?"

Harry checked his time-piece. "Give me half an hour and I'll be there. I'll be able to zone in on Aniketos when I get closer."

"_Thank you!"_ The words were almost a moan of relief and the four teenagers appeared to collapse onto one another.

Harry gave them a warm smile. "See you soon."

Closing the locket, he allowed himself to be the slightest bit dismayed that it was really this easy to find demi-gods, and so close to Camp Half-Blood, too.

Honestly, it was more than a little ridiculous how difficult satyrs found it to find them. If it continued like this, he was going to beat the ever-loving shit out of every satyr he came across for being what had to be wilfully incompetent.

Clicking his tongue, he moved forward to order dinner, knowing he would still have to brave a chemist or shopping centre for Thalia's feminine products before picking up the kids.

**(space)**

Thirty-five minutes later saw Harry scrambling up a mountain-side scree to reach the plateau he could feel his oldest son on, as well as the wafts of chocolaty demi-god scent.

Hauling himself over an edge, he suddenly found hands helping him up.

Straightening and dusting his jeans and flannel shirt off, he looked around at the six demi-gods. He'd apparently missed two when looking through the mirror as one, a seemingly normal, mortal girl of around twenty, had a set of twins of around two or three. She looked a bit more highly strung than the others, though as a teenaged mother of twin demi-gods, and likely to be able to see through the Mist as she was leaning against Aniketos, that was completely understandable.

Two of the boys appeared to be half-brothers, tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair and strong jaws, were around twelve and thirteen, and were each armed with knives, one Celestial Bronze and the other Imperial Gold. They'd been the ones to help him up.

The tall, beautiful girl he'd spoken to, he upped her age to fifteen, was wringing her hands and pacing worriedly, her lower lip thoroughly chewed nearly open.

The other was a girl of around nine with the same wide grey eyes as Annabeth, only with short black hair and a truly magnificent bruise down the left side of her face. She also seemed to be favouring that side of her body.

Harry hummed speculatively, before turning to the girl in charge. "I'm Harrier, or Harry. I'm in charge of the house until Home is finished being built and a proper council can be set up. And you are?"

The girl fidgeted anxiously, obviously having been stressed out for way too long. "I'm Ishbel Vedette, daughter of Venus. Nice to meet you." She sketched a small bow. "This is Tori Alexander, daughter of Athena," She gestured to the little girl. "Nathan Wall, son of Aries," The older boy. "And Daniel Meyes, son of Mars." The younger. Then the woman with the twins. "And this is Callie Troy and her children, Julien and Adrian, sons of Triton."

Harry vaguely remembered that Callie Troy was known as a long-distance swimmer and a known aquatic conservationist. But that wasn't what made him frown.

"Well, it's little wonder you haven't been picked up by a Camp by now. Romans and Greeks aren't supposed to be able to mix; the Mist should have prevented you meeting."

They all appeared to be shocked by that, but it was Tori who demanded "Why?"

Harry plopped down and made himself comfortable. "Because the Greek and the Roman Camps were on opposite sides of the Civil War, and that bred bad blood between the two. To keep their children from fighting, the gods pulled the Mist close so that Greeks and Romans essentially forgot about each other, and would be unable to interact unless brought into contact with one another by the gods. Even unclaimed as you are, you should be able to identify one another, let alone co-operate."

Harry clicked his tongue to his teeth. "Something to discuss with Hecate, I suppose."

"Mr Harry?" He turned to Callie, making an encouraging noise. "Triton mentioned the Mist, but he didn't really explain it. What is it?"

Harry sighed and tilted his head in thought. "It's hard to explain. The Mist is what keeps most normal humans from noticing monsters and demi-gods, but it can also be used for other things." He clicked his tongue again. "As I said, it's hard to explain and vague as hell, but some normal humans can see through the Mist, while the children of Hecate, who also the Goddess of Mist, can manipulate it. When we return to the house, one of the Nereids can probably explain it better." He felt he should bring it up later that demi-gods as young as the twins should not be releasing the scent of a fully-awakened demi-god until they were teenagers.

He hummed again, head tilting as he caught the sounds of something large moving down below. "We should go. I've got a portkey that can take us back home." He pulled out a rope as the children became aware that something was coming closer. "Are you coming?" He inquired of his son.

Aniketos shook his large head and stood as Callie and Ishbel picked up the twins. '_I was following the older scent of demi-gods when I crossed the newer scent trail of this group. I felt I should find this group since the trail was only a few hour old, and go back to the other trail when you came for them.'_

He nodded. "Alright. Be safe." Aniketos slunk over the edge of the plateau in the opposite direction to the one the intruder was coming from. "Everyone, grab hold of the rope and keep a strong grip of the toddlers. The ride will be bumpy and we may fall a short distance to the ground when we arrive."

Everyone nodded and the portkey activated.

Moments later, a pair of centaurs leapt up onto the place the demi-gods were camping on, having been tracking to group for a while to take them to Camp Half-Blood.

They never did find out what happened to the group, but assumed an aerial monster got them.

* * *

Eh. Done. Grindellaquin is based on the goblin princess who fell in love with a man, they went underground for the wedding, the man couldn't stand goblin singing, ran away and she curses him and his wife. Can't for the life of me remember the name of the story though.


End file.
